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Honor Flight Rochester Welcomes Home Mission 48 on Father’s Day
Father’s Day celebration typically draws large crowd
Father’s Day is a special day for the fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfather veterans who are returning home on Honor Flight Rochester’s Mission 48 Sunday, June 19. Father’s Day typically draws a large crowd of flag-waving children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to welcome home their heroes.
There are 56 veterans slated to fly on Mission 48. Included among the ranks are 9 World War II veterans and 41 Korean War (1950-53) and two Vietnam War veterans. There is one veteran who served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. One who served in WWII and Korea; one who served in Korea, the “cold” war era, and Vietnam; and one who served in Korea and the “cold” war.
The veterans served in the U.S. Army (25), the U.S. Navy (13), the U.S. Marine Corps (1), U.S. Army Air Corps (1) and U.S. Air Forces (16).
This is the final spring mission of 2016. Honor Flight Rochester resumes Honor Flights in the fall of 2016.
DATE: Sunday, June 19, 2016
PUBLIC WELCOME CELEBRATION: Approximately 11:45 a.m.
FLIGHT: Southwest Airlines Flight #923
SCHEDULE FLIGHT ARRIVAL TIME: 11:20 a.m. (Sunday, June 19).
WHERE: Greater Rochester International Airport.
EMCEE: Ginny Ryan, 13WHAM-TV anchor.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: William Yale, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Director of the Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
COLOR GUARD: Palmyra Legion Post
MUSIC: Palmyra Fife and Drum
HONOR GUARD: Patriot Guard Riders (pgrny.org).
DEPARTURE: Saturday, June 18, 2016 – Honor Flight Rochester Mission 48 departs the Greater Rochester International Airport at 6:00 a.m. The veterans and their guardians begin arriving at 4 a.m.
William Yale is a retired Parachute Rigger of the U.S. Navy. He deployed on two Mediterranean cruises along with deployments to the Caribbean and the North Atlantic, where he became a Royal Order of the Blue Nose while crossing the Arctic Circle. He also served aboard the U.S.S. Nassau (LHA-4) in 1984 for operations in Beirut, Lebanon and later served aboard the U.S.S. Tripoli (LPH-10) during Desert Storm.
Among his decorations, he has been awarded three Navy Achievement Medals, an Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (Beirut), the Southwest Asia Medal and the Kuwait Liberation Medal during the Persian Gulf War. Upon retirement from the U.S. Navy in March of 1999, he earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Funeral Administration with a minor in Mortuary Science. In the civilian sector, he has practiced as a licensed NY State funeral director followed by Federal Service with the National Cemetery Administration at Bay Pines National Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Fla. He is currently the director of the Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Seneca County, NY. Director Yale was inducted into the NY State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame in 2014.
Honor Flight Rochester (www.honorflightrochester.org) – one of 135 established hubs in 42 states the national Honor Flight Network – is a not-for-profit, fully-volunteer organization with a goal of taking every World War II, Korean War, or Vietnam War veteran from the Greater Rochester area who otherwise would or could not go, to visit and reflect together at Washington D.C. Memorials built in their honor. The two-day trip is free to all World War II, Korean or Vietnam veterans and to veterans of any era who suffer a terminal illness. Rochester’s flying season is April to October. To date, 2,231 veterans have now flown from the Greater Rochester area since the local organization began full scale flights in early 2009.
